NEWARK — With a healthy dose of nostalgia and a hint of defiance, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey began its long good-bye yesterday with its 28th — and probably last — University Day celebration.

Denise Rodgers, the university’s interim president, said UMDNJ’s name may be changing as its schools are broken up and taken over by Rutgers and Rowan universities. But the soul of the 6,000-student health sciences university lives on.

"For some of us, we will always be UMDNJ in our hearts. And that’s OK," Rodgers said in a speech on the Newark campus that left some in the audience in tears. "It is our work and commitment that defines us, not our names. I look forward to walking this journey with you over the course of this year."

UMDNJ will be dissolved July 1 under sweeping higher education reorganization legislation signed by Gov. Chris Christie in August. Under the plan, Rutgers will take over most of UMDNJ, including its dental school, nursing school and medical schools in Newark and Piscataway. Rowan University in Glassboro will take over UMDNJ’s osteopathic medical school in Stratford.

University Hospital, UMDNJ’s teaching hospital in Newark, will come out from under the university umbrella and become its own institution.

The reorganization still requires the approval of Rutgers’ two governing boards, which are scheduled to vote on the UMDNJ merger in November. But Rutgers, Rowan and UMDNJ have already begun the planning process for the complex reorganization.

At yesterday’s University Day celebration, Rodgers was flanked by screens showing photos of UMDNJ’s history as she delivered her speech before several hundred faculty, staff and students gathered in Newark. The event was also broadcast on UMDNJ’s New Brunswick, Piscataway, Scotch Plains and Stratford campuses.

Rodgers traced UMDNJ’s roots to Newark’s old Martland Hospital and the state takeover of the Seton Hall College of Medicine and Dentistry in the 1960s. In 1970, the then-College of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey merged with Rutgers Medical School in what would eventually become UMDNJ.

"We must keep in mind all of the changes we have survived and thrived under," Rodgers said, flashing images of all of UMDNJ’s previous names.

At the ceremony, the school surprised former UMDNJ President Stuart Cook by naming him to the Master Educators’ Guild, a program for top faculty he founded in 1999. UMDNJ also awarded its University Medal to Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex), one of the lawmakers who negotiated the final version of the merger over several hectic weeks in Trenton in June.

Though the reorganization is the end of a chapter for UMDNJ, Oliver said she is hopeful it will lead to something better for the state.

"It may not occur in my lifetime or during my tenure in the Legislature, but I am convinced that this institution and its integration with Rutgers University will allow us in years to come to emerge as a powerhouse in this country as it relates to medical education and health services delivery," Oliver said.